Synopsis

High school student Homura Suzuko has returned to Ikebukuro, the town where she grew up.

"We're friends forever!" She treasures her memories of her old friend from when she was little, Morikawa Chinatsu, and she's excited at the prospect of meeting her again.

But when she gets to school, she finds she has trouble fitting in with the rest of the class.

One day, she decides that if she learns to play the card game WIXOSS, she might be able to make some friends. She stops at a card shop on her way home and buys a deck set. When she takes the set home and opens it, the girl on one of the cards begins to move, and speak.

"Welcome, Selector."

Humans chosen as Selectors must battle for control of the five coins that hold all their memories.

If they can retake all the coins, they win, and can leave the game. But if they lose, as a penalty—

"Lostorage"—What will become of Suzuko as she's caught up in this insane game?

And just like Suzuko, Chinatsu finds herself drawn into the game as well...

Disclaimer: This is the 3rd instalment of the WIXOSS and would advise watching Selector Infected and Spread beforehand. Spoilers for prequels in this.

For a quick summary, skip to bottom paragraph.

The chains that bind us the most closely are the ones we have broken.

The ‘lost storage’ part of the title is some great wordplay as it can be substituted for lost memories which is what defines this anime. The protagonist in question Homura Suzuko has returned to her hometown only to find out she must participate in a WIXOSS game that involves LRIGS. Morikawa Chinatsu, a childhood friend who has experienced hard times with her
family’s financial position makes a declaration to Suzuko. Chinatsu without a moment’s hesitation firmly tells her to disappear as if she were unsightly. Chinatsu is adamant that she will regain happiness by severing all her ties with Suzuko, who is left stunned and speechless from their meeting.

The WIXOSS game in this instalment has changed its rules, with the most noticeable one being that males are now participants this time round whereas in the prequels it was restricted to just females. The consequences for the game have changed dramatically, with winning and losing being dependant on the number of coins a LRIG user has. The LRIG user loses their personality and effectively dies when their coin’s total reaches to zero. The user’s LRIG takes possession of the former host’s body and continues life as planned. This is much like the LRIG switching bodies with their users once they became an eternal girl.

Memories are the strongest themes associated with this version of WIXOSS. The notion that one would retain fond memories and try to block out unpleasant ones is the norm. The idea of altering undesirable memories is something that many would approve for due to its benefits involved. However, even when a LRIG user has obtained the 5 coins required to change a single memory, it never goes as planned as one has to reexperience that memory, which may prove to be repulsive for some as was the case for Mikage Hanna. Just like the other instalments it’s still a lose-lose situation with nothing but hardship and despair awaiting our participants.

The bond that Suzuko and Chitose share goes back many years to the time they were still in elementary school. Personal circumstances dictated that they would not be reunited until sometime later but that didn’t stop Suzuko from keeping her in the back of her mind. The matching key-chain is a solid representation of their relationship, even though Chitose trampled on it declaring it was all over between them. Suzuko still was optimistic that their friendship could be restored and was genuinely concerned about her wellbeing.

The girls have had their fair share of problems with Suzuko arguably having it the worst. The simple matter is she lost her mother during the separation stage and returned only because of her father’s work commitments. Meanwhile, Chitose’s family business went under with her family having to relocate most of the time due to the job insecurity involved. This doesn’t give the right for Chitose to act all obnoxious because of the fact she has suffered all this time. There was never a reason for Chitose to hate her knowing deep down she honestly liked her and saw her as the ideal friend.

The antagonist this time is a man named Satomi who is known as the broker between the LRIG users. The shady man can set up matches for his clients who are desperate to earn some coins. The strange thing is that nobody suspected him of being a LRIG user this whole time. The fact is that LRIG users can identify each other within a certain radius but can’t detect him is baffling. I thought that all LRIG users had to carry their LRIG cards around but he never did which was surprising. It is known later that he challenges others to a battle when they are at a risk of being erased all together.

To him, the act of ending one’s life is deemed to be irrelevant as he derives pleasure from the opposition’s anguish. The level of corruptness found in him was pitch black meaning he was a lost cause from the very beginning. The ability for him to nonchalantly carry out murders from a personality sense is made redundant when we find out it’s a former LRIG now in possession of the body. He wasn’t evil for the sake of being evil and I just found him to be a poorly written antagonist along with the plot conveniences.

There is extra symbolism that needs mentioning. The LRIG template seen in the very beginning of the opening is an important discussion point. The white girl is the LRIG before users insert their personal memories into them. The template LRIG before then is a pure entity, meaning it has neither positive or negative memories. I would use the analogy of a new-born infant who enters the world as being sinless with nothing to be judged on. The LRIGs reflect the mental state of the user with Suzuko’s LRIG resembling Chinatsu and vice versa. The themes to be honest are a lot more engaging than the other aspects of the show such as the card battles which are secondary in nature.

Now on to the technical aspects on the show, with the art style being quite different from its predecessor. The prequels had a design being dubbed dark moe which was true for those who sat through it. The art style is less moe than before but has much better character designs along with the fact you can’t have moe guys. There was a need to conform to a more traditional look even though the setting stayed relatively the same. The background art with some of it being CGI looks vastly improved in comparison to the prequels. The actual animation seems to have taken a decline in quality with it looking less fluid than before and more of an emphasis placed on still frames and such. There are also occasions of sloppily drawn characters which is just a minor gripe of mine.

The sound by Maiko Iuchi (A Certain Magical Index, Heavy Object) was relatively tame compared to the other series she has produced music for. There was extensive electronic music used in this one which would be found mainly in the card battles. The tempo adjusts to the intensity of the scene which is determined by the situation involved. The voice actors did a decent job which was expected of them but Hashimoto Chinami who played Suzuko kind of irritated me with the prolonged “Chi-chan” cries making her sound like a child asking for forgiveness.

TLDR: All in all, this was a relatively decent addition to the WIXOSS series but I find to be poorer in terms of script quality but in terms of thematic depth, it’s right up there with the characters holding it back. The production side to it felt adequate but feels like only the bare minimum being met in standards. The show is watchable but definitely has it faults here which is reflected in my score.

Lostorage incited WIXOSS biggest turn off is that the story and plot takes itself way too seriously, and is overly dramatic. It’s so bad to the point where the show feels like a giant depressing mess. There aren't many enlightening moments featured within the story, which makes a majority of the show a chore to watch. In addition to this the dialogue and characters do not feel fleshed out enough. Characters that are featured feel so one dimensional.

They have the childhood friends who have become disconnected. There is the insane main antagonist who cannot be
harmed until the end because of plot armor. Then lastly, we have the character, whom has morals, and a goal, yet falls flat during their big opportunity. The biggest problem I had with them was that they lack any interesting qualities to their personalities.
Of course the story goes back and tries to explain the past traumatic events to certain characters; which do in fact make the story and individual character a little more intriguing however, not to the point of complete satisfaction.

Sometimes during the show I would think to myself, “Damn these guys need some Prozac.” However, I don’t even think that medication would help these crybabies and drama queens. The so called “drama” in the story is so cliché and repetitive that I found myself losing interest in the entire series.
I would've liked to see the show branch out more and at least try and get out of the constant drama.

I felt like the story needed that one fan service beach episode to enlighten the mood. This simply was not the case. One of the worst reoccurring themes in the story is the card battles. The overbearing drama coupled with the characters fear and lack of attitude that isn’t anger or depression took away the pleasure of watching the card game.

This is how I interpreted the card battles,
Suzuko: “wah wah, I can’t lose this battle; I only have one coin left, boo hoo.”
Chinatsu: (Unnecessary angry grunts and screaming) “I hate you; you need to disappear, derpa herp.”
Kou: “Hee hee hee” (sucks crazy juice through a straw in the background) these dumb bitches are fighting for my amusement.”
Hanna: ________ Attackuu, Coin betto, please recharge batteries... well she isn’t a robot but you get the picture.
Rinse and repeat…

Finally, during the girls' overly dramatic climatic battle; I couldn’t feel bad nor make any connections to the characters because they've been depressing and angry throughout the entire story. Flashbacks, intense moments of screaming & crying... yeah, they've been doing that through the span of the story. So why the hell would it make a difference now? Because it's the last episode? Of course.

Overall the storytelling was terrible. It lacks refreshment and creativity. I felt like it focused too much on drama than the quality of anything else. I mean for Pete sake there was a damn suicide… lighten the story up just a little.

Moving onto the art. The art and animation that Wixoss provides is pretty impressive, although I felt like there could've been improvements to background settings, most specially details in objects. There could’ve been more of an effort made to make background details livelier. The special effects were good.

They’re noticeable and stand out in battle, which makes the action look great! Character designs were not that impressive. I’m mostly criticizing the outfit designs for the Lrig’s for lack of creativity.

The soundtrack was pretty good. Maiko Iuchi & Yasumasa Koyama did a great job with sound effects and creating music that fit the tone of many of the battles. The voice actors do a good job of making their characters sound like whiny annoying high school students, and one crazy adult... well, sadistic man-child.

Overall there are many changes I would’ve liked to have seen during the show. Number one would be more action without the dialogue. I felt like every time a character had an opportunity to speak they would just ruin the simplicity of a card game battle by making everything so serious. Lastly I would’ve loved to have seen at least one beach episode to enlighten the overall mood of the show.

Ultimately, I was so unimpressed with this entry in the Wixoss franchise that I gave it a well-deserved final score of 4/10.

Lostorage Incited Wixoss isn't the worst anime I've ever seen but it certainly doesn't live up to its predecessors.

Story: 5/10
The previous Wixoss shows were these high-stakes games where if you win you get a wish granted and if you lose it's reversed and your miserable. Despite the clunky explanations they gave it was still a clever and intimidating, the consequences mattered to the characters enough that the stakes were high. Lostorage changes it around so their memories are at stake, and while the downside is losing your memories and becoming an entirely different person, the upside is... the ability to change one of
your memories.
How incredibly situational. In fact, if you want to change one of your memories you can just do that, that's how memory works. On top of that, the major conflict between the main characters feels incredibly forced.

Art and Sound: 6
I am a whelp and don't generally notice the art and sound in anime. The environment the battles take place in is pretty cool but gets old quickly. Nothing else popped out at me.

Characters: 3
This is where Lostorage really falls flat.

Homura Suzuko - Suzuko is the "main character" of Lostorage but she really doesn't feel like it. We don't really get into her headspace all that much past the first few episodes and because of how the show works by not really explaining the card game much, it's difficult to see her growth. If anything, it seems like rather than improving at the game like Ruko from Selector, she learned how to make up rules as she goes along.

Hanna Mikage - Hanna is a weird mix of the cute small character due to her hands always being in her sleeves and the cold analytical character due to her personality. While Hanna as the best reason for wanting to win the game, regaining the memories of what happened to her late little brother, she also has the most obnoxious speech quirk of stating a word that summarizes her sentences before saying them. An example would be a sentence like "Suspicion. What are you doing here?" which would be ok for a minor character, but she ends up becoming a major character in the story and it is incredibly grating.

Shohei Shirai - Is a nice guy. This is pretty much the extent to his personality, he's just really nice and wants to get some memories back about soccer or something. He refuses to fight battles early on even though the rules this time around impose a time limit that needs to be upheld by battles, so I don't know what he thought the outcome would be. His effect in the story is basically just to make one character question her actions but not actually do anything.

Chinatsu Morikawa - She's the secondary main character, or arguably even the main character in this show, but I saved her til now because holy crap does this character suck. I hope it's not a spoiler since it happens pretty early on that she effectively becomes a villain for most of the show. The issue with this is that her reasons are absolutely absurd. She wants to forget her memories of her childhood with Suzuko in order to "become stronger." It gets to the point where she has effectively killed people for this and she becomes completely irredeemable. I hate this character, she is an awful person for no reason.

Kou Satomi - Here is the only good character. Satomi has a reasonably interesting backstory and is entertaining and expressive enough to be fun to watch.

Unlike in Selector, the LRIGs are barely even characters. I guess it comes from them being a manifestation of their selectors' memories rather than existing people with their own names and personalities, but there is no emotional connection there, no matter what the ending tries to dredge up.

Enjoyment: 4
I kept trying to like this show. I thought at the beginning that the concept was interesting, but that was because I thought that the winner of the battles got to change their opponents' memories, which could have led to an interesting plot whereby the characters don't know what's real or and maybe we would have gotten an unreliable narrator. Instead the premise just makes the battles feel like more of a chore than anything. I like how Satomi abused the system for his own amusement, and I suppose it makes sense for the time limit to be there in that case, but the incentive to winning is mostly just not having to play the game anymore, which makes the show just feel empty, like the characters aren't really working toward anything, they just want it to be over.

Overall: 4
Lostorage is not a very good show, which is disappointing because I thought Selector was great. It got to the point where the intricacies of the game really should have been explained better. The coin betting mechanic they introduce was cool and made every player seem unique, but without a knowledge of Wixoss as a game it doesn't make a lot of sense. The final episode is full of cop-outs too and while I do like the ending scene, a lot of the emotional moments feel profoundly undeserved.

Ok, after selector spread WIXOSS, we're now introduced to a sequel.....if we can call it that , which is Lostorage Incited WIXOSS. Both sequel have the same genre that ranges from School, Psychological, Shoujo and drama, but, Lostorage Incited WIXOSS has a yuri element in it cu'z it involves the relationship of two former childhood friends namely Suzuko Homura and Chinatsu Morikawa. Also, though both may be the same in one way they're still different in another way, in which it wouldn't be fair to say that one is the continuation of the other. Let's not forget that selector spread WIXOSS has a clean ending
and it wasn't much of a disappointment, while Lostorage Incited WIXOSS has somewhat a lot of loose ends, soooooo,

Storywise, I've rated it as a Mediocre 5, since it still has the same plot with some slight differences, when it comes to how both main characters got their start from being drafted in the WIXOSS game, and both have the same situation as to what them selector have to do, the only differences was that in the 1st WIXOSS the loser only gets to have her wish cursed and it was also not good for the winner since she get's taken over by the LIRG, while the 2nd WIXOSS the selector looses his or her memories and get's taken over by a LIRG, but nothing was known if the loosing selector becomes a LIRG, since at the end of this anime we the audience haven't seen any LIRG who is a guy and in fact I don't think that the antagonist itself is a guy at all, he is more like a female LIRG in a guy's body.

Art, just like any anime with a school genre, I've rated it as a mediocre 5, since we still see them characters in their quintessential eye candy school uniform, and the LIRG's themselves, when it come to their attire were not that different from the LIRG's of the 1st WIXOSS.

Sound, frankly, I have no comment as to which seiyuu voiced who, the rating "good 7" is for the opening theme.

Suzuko Homura- ok, so she came back to Ikebukuro from Hokkaido due to family issues, what were her family issues we don't know that her loose end, also, her character suggests that she may be lesbian and wants to continue her relationship with Chi chan, but got sided when Chichan seemly tries to distance herself from her, don't get me wrong, but I like her her character is good but not very good.

Chinatsu Morikawa- Suzu's childhood friend and pretty much a lesbian, her loose end is for us not know what were the memories she want's to forget, and foe her to forget Suzu was just too shallow for her to risk getting her ass in the hole of being a selector, though she got her wish, since Mel now has her body, her ending arc was the bitter part for me.

Kou Satomi the bookkeeper, I'd say that anime writer Michihiro Tsuchiya, did a good job of adding him as the main antagonist, his loose end was the details as how he came to be which is pretty unclear, and is he a LIRG in a man's body or is he a LIRG who came in to the real world and became a man by choice? Either, it wasn't konw if we will be able to see him again in another WIXOSS sequel.

Hanna Mikage- I can't understand as to why she has to be one of them selectors just to find out as to what has happen to her bother, when she can simply ask her mom or her oneechan.

Shohei Shirai- I kind like that he traide in vain to save Chichan, too bad that he could have broken the Suzu X Chi yuri relationship.

LIRG's , I have nothing much to say since their personalities were merely the same as the 1st WIXOSS except in a different attire and capability.

So with all that's been said , I give the characters a good 7.

Enjoyment, it was good enough for me to keep following up this anime, but I just can't forgive that yuri element that this anime has, sure it maybe touching and nice, but it feels like that the ending was rushed and we're left as to why Chi chan want's to get rid of her memories, also what's up with the college of her choice that she has to throw a fit towards her folks? all we know was that she is now Mel. So, it was a good enough 7 , for this part.

Overall, this anime has presented us with a bitter sweet ending, sweet cu'z Suzu is still Suzu and is no longer a selector, same cannot be said for Chi chan, also this sequel hasn't given us a clean ending, so overall this is a fair 6, so, another sequel? Maybe. Honest.